With the introduction of metallic cartridge and the smokeless powder the invention field of future firearms is wide open but I was wondering would be a practical for Charisian Empire?
I think going from the current rifle ( still BP design ) to something like AK is not practical during this conflict, they are missing a few steps between.
They just started to produce M96 and revolvers and from cost and time point of view stopping that production lines and designing and building a new ones is just not practical.
From the description M96 remind me of Lee-Meatford rifle, but I wonder if that's correct.
One thing that stands out for me that there is no combat shotguns, now when the warfare is moving in the direction of trench fighting this type weapon would be better than the revolver. It would be great for the boarding actions of the marines also.
I wonder if with the introduction of the metallic cartridge we will see a magazine fed pistol soon? Or again that would be impractical at this stage due to cost and time when they just re-equipped the troops with the revolvers.
There is only one weapon I think should be introduced and that is a machine gun. Because they are squad weapons not individual one, one production line could be set up to producing one and the advantages are obvious. As to the design of the weapon, with the Owl's help better designs that Maxim or Gatling gun are possible, two that come to mind are M1919 Browning design or MG42 design and using the same ammunition that rifle you don't even have to produce different caliber of ammo. My favourite would be MG42 due to the ratio of fire and weight advantage but I don't know if that would be possible without being accused by inquisition of Shan-wei influence. What do you think?
but I was wondering if it was just my wishful thinking or I was on the "correct path" and other people were coming to that conclusion to